Design tokens 101

Design systems have revolutionized how teams build digital products, and at the heart of any scalable design system are design tokens. They provide a single source of truth for design decisions, ensuring consistency across teams, platforms, and codebases.

What Are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are platform-agnostic variables that store design decisions—colors, typography, spacing, shadows, and even motion properties. Instead of hardcoding these values in CSS or design files, tokens act as an abstraction layer that can be converted into different formats (CSS variables, JSON, XML, etc.).

What Are Design Tokens?

1. Consistency Across Platforms: Whether it’s web, iOS, or Android, tokens keep design elements aligned.

2. Scalability: Large teams can update styles in one place without breaking consistency.

3. Theming & Customization: Tokens make it easy to switch between dark mode, branding variants, and localization needs.

4. Automation & Code Integration: Using tools like Style Dictionary or Token Studio, designers and developers can sync changes effortlessly.

How to implement them

• Start with core tokens (colors, typography, spacing).

• Create semantic tokens for more abstract concepts like “primary-button-background.”

• Integrate tokens into code using JSON or CSS variables.

• Automate the pipeline with GitHub Actions or CI/CD workflows to sync tokens with design tools like Figma.

Design tokens aren’t just a convenience; they’re a necessity for modern UI/UX design. Whether you’re working on a small project or a large-scale system, tokens provide the flexibility and structure needed to build efficiently.